I. Samhain or Samonios: Halloween's ancestor
The celebration of the Christian Saints (All Saints Day) was officially placed on November 1st by the Pope in 835... Before that, it had been held for over a century in early May, and scholars think the Christian festival was modeled on the Roman Lemuria festival, a kind of festival of the dead. In England, it seems the All Saints Day was already celebrated on November 1st in the early 8th century, and the official decision to move the feast simply followed folk customs. [1]
The end of October/beginning of November (the date was moveable according to the lunar phases) represented for the Celtic people of Antiquity the end of the year et, of course, the beginning of the new one. Known as Samonios in Gaul, Samhain (or other variations according to the region) in the British Isles and across the world today among neo-pagans, many of these festival themes survived and evolved in our modern Halloween.
The end of the year indicated for the Celts the entry in the dark season, where the nights are long, the weather cold, the soil barren. On Samhain, ancient people bid farewell to the sunlight. Summer was truly over and the last harvests were completed. Entering a period of seasonal and natural darkness gave birth to a folklore of closeness with the underworld, the world of the dead.
Among the Gauls, the 3 days that lasted Samonios were apparently considered as outside the rest of the year. Their standing alone emphasizes the idea of threshold: between the 3 celtic seasons (light and dark) and between 2 worlds (the living and the dead). Neo-pagans today still hold the idea that on Samhain the veil with the spirit world is at its thinnest, and that the period is ideal for divination.
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